On Sunday, (January 21), the Turkish regional governor for the resort of Antalya expressed concerns about eight bodies washed ashore on local beaches over the past six days, suggesting they could be migrants. The bodies are reported to have been dressed in clothes and shoes made in Syria, reported the German news agency dpa.

According to the news agency Reuters, which quoted Turkish broadcaster Haberturk, the bodies of an adult and a child were first found last Wednesday (January 17) in the Manavgat and Alanya regions. Another three bodies were found the following day in the area and a sixth on Sunday.

On Monday (January 22), two more bodies were discovered on a beach in the region, bringing the total to eight. Some news agencies and sources, including the French news agency Agence France Presse (AFP) and the news website Turkish Minute, have reported a total of nine bodies.

Weather conditions may have propelled the bodies towards Turkey

These latest two bodies have not yet been identified, but the authorities believe that judging by the wind, waves and pattern of currents in the area, at least five of these bodies may have washed ashore following the shipwreck of a migrant boat in December.

The Cyprus Mail reported that the meteorological records over the past week indicated that if the ship sunk somewhere between Lebanon and Cyprus, the bodies could have indeed washed north towards Turkey, dragged by the prevailing winds and waves.

Three dead bodies were also found washed up in Cyprus on the Karpass peninsula within the last 11 days, reported the Cyprus Mail.

Missing boat reported by Lebanese embassy in December

"An event reported by the Lebanese embassy in Ankara on December 11 is consistent with this," reported dpa.

According to the Lebanese embassy, contact was lost with a boat that is reported to have been carrying around 90 migrants that had been spotted leaving the Syrian / Lebanese coast on its way to Cyprus.

The Anatalya governor’s office added that one of the bodies found "is assumed to be a Turkish citizen who was reported missing," reported the Associated Press news agency (AP). However, the connection between the missing Turkish citizen and the ship departing from the Lebanese coast remains unclear.

'At least 30 children could have been on board'

According to a lawyer in Lebanon who works on migrant cases, Mohammed Sablouh, the missing ship is thought to have left northern Lebanon in December with about "85 people on board, including 30 children," reported AP.

Last week on Thursday, Sablouh said that contact was lost with another ship leaving Lebanon, this boat is thought to have been carrying between 50 and 60 people, reported AP.

An executive director of a Lebanese NGO, the Cedar Center for Legal Studies, said that his group had identified about 76 passengers on board the missing boat from December 11 and all of them were Syrians. The boat was captained by a Lebanese sailor, explained Saadeddine Shatila to AP.

According to Shatila, some of the Syrians on board had been living for years in Lebanon as refugees and some had arrived more recently. They had paid around €3,200 per person to board the boat and sail for Europe.

Investigation into disappearance of ship is 'ongoing'

An ongoing investigation, reported dpa, is focused on the individuals who may have been aboard this ship.

Since the economic situation in Lebanon has worsened, the desire to leave has increased, along with the cost of the journey.

Shatila told AP that he hoped that the Turkish authorities could use DNA tests to identify the bodies and determine whether they did indeed come from those missing in the December shipwreck. He said it would be important for families of those missing to obtain some closure if they could at least ascertain what happened to their missing relatives.

Shatila said that the international community should look more closely at expanding legal routes out of conflict zones so that people would not turn to smugglers in search of a better life. "People are leaving irregularly by these boats because they don’t have another solution," Shatila told AP.

The UN Migration Agency IOM, which monitors the numbers of missing migrants en route to Europe, estimates that more than 3,000 migrants went missing, presumed dead, in the Mediterranean during 2023. This represented the highest death toll for a single year since 2017, said the agency.

With dpa, AP, Reuters, AFP